AVS 45th International Symposium
    Electronic Materials and Processing Division Friday Sessions
       Session EM-FrM

Paper EM-FrM6
Small Area XPS Analysis of Silicon Wafers Employing Cu Line Technology

Friday, November 6, 1998, 10:00 am, Room 316

Session: Fabrication and Characterization of Semiconductor Device Layers
Presenter: E. Principe, Charles Evans & Associates
Authors: E. Principe, Charles Evans & Associates
R. Brigham, Charles Evans & Associates
T.J. Schuerlein, Charles Evans & Associates
Correspondent: Click to Email
Shrinking device sizes are requiring semiconductor manufacturers to change the materials they use in their processes. The semiconductor industry is becoming aware that the future generations of devices will no longer be able to utilize aluminum as a conductor. As a fundamentally new technology, the development of copper metallization using Damascene processes have undergone a great deal of investigation. It is understood that the chemical and physical states of the copper and surrounding silicon can alter device performance, and therefore these states must be controlled. X-Ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS, also know as Electron Spectroscopy for Chemical Analysis, ESCA) can provide information that is difficult, if not impossible, to obtain by other methods. XPS will be shown to provide chemical state identification of copper, as well as measure the copper oxide thickness. Residual copper concentrations on the silicon surface at various process steps will be reported.